Steve Jobs Unveils iCloud @ WWDC

It was a bit of a surprise today when Steve Jobs walked out on the stage at WWDC to the tune of James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” classic blasting over the PA system. He took a leave back in January, but that didn’t stop him from appearing today. In high spirits and receiving much appreciation from 5000 Apple devotees, jobs kicked off the event with the announcement of iCloud. A cloud-based media streaming service that allows you to access your music and data from any Apple device connected to the internet, anywhere. The service is free in beta now for up to 1000 songs, Reuters reports it will cost $24.99 a year beginning this fall for extra space.

iCloud stores your music, photos, apps, calendars, documents, and more. And wirelessly pushes them to all your devices — automatically. It’s the easiest way to manage your content. Because now you don’t have to.

Amazon and Google have their own cloud music services, but where iCloud differs and where it shines is that the software will simply scan your harddrive for your media, then give you access to it in the iCloud immediately and automatically; Google and Amazon require you to upload every song yourself.